Improvement in railroad-car couplings



R. CARKHUFE Car Coupling.

Patented May 24, 1864.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RALPH GARKHUFF, OF LEWISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILROAD-CAR COUPLINGS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N0. 42,835, dated May 24,1864.

To all whom t 'may concern Be it known that I, R. OARKHUFF, ofLewisburg, in the county of Union and State of Pennsylvania, haveinvented a new and Improved Ooupling designed for Coupling Railroad andStreet Passenger-Cars; and I do hereby declare that the following is afull, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had tothe annexed drawings, making a part'of this speciicatiomin which- FigureI is a perspective view of my invention. Fig. II is a longitudinalsectional view taken in the linex Fig.IlI. Fig. III is a section taken1n line ofx x, Fig. Il. Fig. IV is a View of rack G and key F of Figs. Iand II and III. Fig. V is a view of a sectional pinion, H, for operatingrack G of Figs. IV and 1I.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the severalfigures.

This invention consists in a novel arrangement of the mechanism forlifting the couplin g-key F, and at the same time making itselfcoupling, whereby the coupling and uncoupling of cars is renderedmore easy and safe to the attendant than usual.

To enable those skilled in the arts to fully understand, construct, anduse my invention, I will proceed to describe it.

A represents the .body or back part of an ordinary coupling, and is madeof wrought-iron. B is a cast-iron head to the same, the top of which ismade dat, on which two pairs of journal-boxes, J J, for shaft E to workin, are placed.

Directly back of the head B, and bolted fast to the body A, are twocast-iron uprights,

L L, solconstructed as to form guides for the rack G.

On the shaft E is placed a sectional pinion, H, which is shown in Fig.V, and gears into the rack G. There is attached to the sha-ftE a lever,D, by which arrangement the rack G may be lifted to uncouple the cars,and to the rack G is loosely attached the key F, it being different fromordinary coupling-bolts, in that the width is so proportioned to thelength that there is but a small amount of loss or slack to be taken upin the starting of the cars, thus preventing all that jerking andjarring ofthe cars. Back of guides L Lis placed a stop, I, as shown inFigs. I, Il, and III, thus preventing the link G from going past the keyF more than enough to admit the key F to drop into its place.

On the top oi' lever D there is a ball, M, Which acts as acounterpoise-Weight to secure the lever D on either side of a verticalline that it may be placed, thus securing the coupling and uncoupling ofthe cars as in either case it may be desired.

The operation of this machine is obvious to all, and simple enough toneed no more explanation.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

In a car coupling', the use and combination of the rack G, pinion H, andkey F, for the purpose set forth.

R. OARKHUFF.

Witnesses:

J A. MERTZ, J oHN ORossGRovE.

